The Cry of a Mandrake
by EosAella
Summary: When a strange man comes to Camelot and Merlin's secret is revealed against his will what will Arthur do? Will his view change when he discovers how much Merlin has done for Camelot? NO SLASH
1. The Cry

"I come with an offer my lord," the man standing in front of the king said. Arthur motioned for him to continue, "I bring an opportunity for you to rid you kingdom of the most powerful users of magic." Arthur looked intrigued. "Tell me sire, what do you know of warlocks?"

The man suddenly had Merlin's full attention.

"Nothing, what are they?" Arthur asked.

"They are like sorcerers sire, except that they do not have to practice magic – or even use incantations – because they are born with it. Some are able to use it from birth; others discover the ability later in life."

"I have never heard of them."

"Both Morgause and the Lady Morgana were witches sire. Powerful ones at that, neither as powerful as Emrys of course."

"Emrys?"

"The most powerful warlock ever to exist, if the druid legends are correct then the power he holds could bring about the doom of Camelot with nothing but a sneeze."

"I have never heard of him, we must find him at once!"

"I do not believe that you will be able to find him sire, he may not even be born yet. I had thought- but no. It can't be you, not with that attitude."

"What don't be me?"

"Well the legends say that Emrys is destined to protect the once and future king, that he is to help unite the land of Albion and bring magic back to the realm. I had heard rumours that _you_ were the once and future king but I suppose with that attitude to magic it is unlikely that a warlock would ever willingly reveal himself."

"So how do you propose to find these warlocks anyway?"

The stranger bent down and picked out a plant, "this is a mandrake sire. I err… procured it from a sorcerer before I executed him. It has been enchanted to scream to witches and warlocks when hurt in a certain way. The scream is torture for them and it is impossible for them to not react."

Merlin's whole body was tense; there was no way he would be able to escape. He knew that those with magic could hear the scream of a mandrake but there was no telling if this man was being truthful or not. It is possible that with an enchantment it may work just as he said it would.

"For the most powerful the pain is worse, for example the Emrys that I mentioned earlier would probably actually lose control of his magic and lash out instinctively in self-protection."

Gaius shot Merlin a worried glance.

Arthur leant back in his chair and gestured around the council chambers, "the floor is yours."

The man bowed slightly before pulling a length of rope and a knife from his bag. He wrapped the rope around the top of the plant twice and pulled hard five times.

Nothing happened.

He picked up the knife and stabbed it viciously into the centre of the plant.

Nothing happened.

Merlin let out a sigh of relief. It was a dud, nothing to worry about. He didn't notice the man smile and twist the knife.

Several things happened.

A loud shriek pierced Merlin's skull like fire and he fell to the ground with a yell, his hands tightly over his ears. It felt like the dragon had managed to get inside his head and decided that a bit of fire would help the décor.

His eyes snapped open, a bright, pure gold. The mandrake flew from the man's hands.

"Wait," he thought, "I didn't do tell my magic to do that."

The screaming had gone but the fire continued to rage, Merlin continued to yell out. Each shriek coinciding with a burst of chaos. Windows shattered, flames jumped higher on their torches, the whole castle seemed to shake.

Gaius leant down next to his ward and prised his hands off his ears, "Merlin, Merlin you need to listen to me. You need to stop; you've got to get control."

Merlin's face screwed up in pain but he stopped yelling; a single tear of pain escaped and rolled down his cheek.

"Come on Merlin!" Gaius was slightly more firm now, "think about how annoying it would be if _you _ended your own destiny by bringing down the castle on top of Arthur. After all that hard work!"

Slowly the castle stopped shaking, the flames died down and the windows repaired themselves. As Merlin stopped shaking he let out a gasp and fell into unconsciousness.

"Well that was unexpected," the man said still holding the knife.

"Not really." Gaius muttered.

"Well that was a reaction worthy of Emrys."

"Idiot." The old man muttered, "That's because Merlin _is _Emrys. At least to the druids anyway."

The man's jaw literally dropped.

Everyone turned to face the king who was sitting stock still in his throne, too shocked to speak. A barely noticeable nod to the guards and a still unconscious Merlin was dragged from the room to the dungeons.

"The council is dismissed."

No one moved.

"NOW!"

Arthur's thoughts swirled through his head.

Merlin… Merlin… Merlin who couldn't even raise a sword, Merlin who could trip over a bug, Merlin who would willingly give his life for Arthur's.

Merlin his friend.

Powerful?

Nah.


	2. The NotSoShort Explanation

Merlin awoke with a pounding headache. He groaned as he sat up and looked around, he appeared to be in a dungeon.

Oh god, how much had he drunk last night? He couldn't remember a thing.

He tried to stand up before realising he was chained to the wall, he frowned. No average prisoner was ever chained up.

He huffed and sat back down.

This must just be Arthur's idea of a joke.

He thought back to the last thing he could remember.

He had recollections of the council chambers, and a man who had come to visit Arthur and-

Oh no.

It all came flooding back to him, the mandrake, the pain, Gaius' words, the darkness.

He really had put his foot in it this time.

"Sire." I voice came from outside as a guard greeted Arthur. He was dismissed as the king entered the cell. He looked down at Merlin.

Then to the latter's surprise he burst out laughing.

"Err… Arthur?"

"You know you actually had me going for a minute there Merlin! But you didn't quite fool me, it was when Gaius called you Emrys, I mean you! A powerful sorcerer? As if!"

"Warlock." Muttered Merlin but he was ignored.

"Come on then, how did you do it?"

"Do what?"

"The eyes, the windows, the fire! How did you do it?"

"Um… Magic?"

"Alright Merlin a joke's a joke now how did you do it?"

"I'm serious Arthur!" Arthur raised his eyebrows, "I thought kings were meant to be wise?"

"Merlin tell me how you did it, that's an order."

Not once looking away from Arthur Merlin's eyes flashed and his chains fell off.

Arthur promptly fainted.

Merlin rolled his eyes and stood up stretching his arms. He looked down and the figure on the floor before slapping him round the face.

Arthur shot up spluttering, he stopped when he saw Merlin. He raised a hand to rub his cheek. "Ow. You know I think it's illegal to slap the king."

"What are you going to do? Lock me up?"

Merlin sat on the floor feeling uncomfortable looking down at Arthur like that.

They sat like that and looked at each other for a while. Arthur didn't know what to do until he heard something truly heart breaking.

"Please don't execute me."

"I'm not going to execute you Merlin." Merlin looked up in happy disbelief, "But I want to know everything, everything that you've done since coming to Camelot."

Merlin sighed, "Can I just give you the shortened version because otherwise we'd be here for hours?"

Taking his silence as a yes Merlin took a deep breath and began.

"I dropped the chandelier on that old lady with the dagger, I made the snakes come alive before they were meant to, I made the fire kill the avanc, I conjured the light in the cave, I enchanted Lancelot's lance so that it would kill the Gryphon , I cured your father after Edwin tried to kill him with those weird bug things, I killed Sophia and her father when they tried to drown you, I forged a sword from a dragon's breath so that the wrath could be killed, I conjured the wind in Ealdor, I killed Nimueh so that Gaius didn't give his life to stop me giving my life to stop my mother dying after I tried to give my life because you were bitten by the questing beast." Merlin stopped for a breath before continuing, "I re-captured the soul of Cornelius Sigan, I snapped the straps on the assassin's saddle, I took Morgana to the druids, I shut the gate to stop the Wildren, I revealed Catrina as a troll, I uncovered the witch finder, I helped the druid girl escape and then had to stand back and watch as you killed her," Merlin's voice cracked slightly as he thought of Freja, "I discovered how to undo the enchantment that made you love Lady Vivian, I found the bandits with the crystal of Neotid, I had to poison Morgana to stop the sleeping spell on Camelot, I released the dragon, I sent it away again when Balinor – my father – died in my arms and you told me not to cry over any man, I told you that you dealt it a mortal blow but really where do you think the body was because a great big dragon corpse doesn't just disappear like that!" Merlin got a bit carried away before Arthur cleared his throat, "Right yes, where was I? I got rid of the mandrake that was making your father mad, I destroyed the staff that was commanding the skeleton army, I got rid of the goblin possessing Gaius – but Gwen helped with that one – I discovered the stolan swords, I almost killed Morgana, then I cured her, then I stopped her from killing your father, I killed the sidhe inside Princess Elena, I caused the explosion in the castle of Fyrien, I found the fisher king after removing the phoenix eye from your wrist and sending away the wyverns – I was magic, get it? – I helped Gaius kill the manticore, I'm Dragoon, I stopped Gilli killing your father, I emptied the cup of life of all its blood because I used the sword that your father used against the wrath because that's the only thing that can kill something that can't be killed" Merlin took another breath, " I couldn't do much against the derocha but I got rid of the Wyverns at the Isle of the Blessed, I tried to cure your father but Morgana had given Agravaine an enchanted pendant to reverse the effect of any healing spell so in fact the magic was turned against him, I rescued the dragon egg and hatched it, I saw the Lamia for what she really was with the knights, I tried to stop Lancelot before it was too late but I couldn't. He had been brought back to life by Morgana and Gwen had been enchanted by the bangle he gave her, I saved Gwen after you accidently shot her because Morgana disguised her as a deer, the sword that was put in the stone is really the one forged by the dragon and I put it there, I also made the ceiling collapse on Morgana but I think she survived. Not to mention the countless times that I've done things like make branched fall on bandits or make attackers drop their weapons." Merlin finished and took a deep breath.

Arthur didn't say anything.

"Oh congratulations Merlin, killing all those beasts and thwarting all those plots against Camelot must have been really hard work. Especially as you had to do all that and keep your magic hidden. Well done!" Merlin said pointedly.

Nothing.

Merlin sighed and waved a hand in front of his face. "I think he's in shock."

He conjured a flame and began to play with it with his magic.

After about five minutes Arthur finally spoke up, "That's the short version?"

Merlin – who had been egging on two balls of fire that were racing around him – looked up. The fire vanished in a puff of smoke.

"Well I could go more into the fact that you killed the only woman I ever loved or that you told me not to cry over my dead father, or that my best friend's last act was to protect me from you and the laws of Camelot."

Arthur gave him a look.

"Or I could just shut up."

"How about a promotion?" Arthur asked unexpectedly after a few more moments of silence.

"I'm sorry?"

"Well most people would be knighted or something after all that."

"I just wanted a bit of gratitude to be honest, anyway who'd want to be a knight? They're thick."

"I'm a knight."

"You're point is?"

Arthur rolled his eyes, "I wasn't going to knight you."

"Thank god."

"I was going to make you court sorcerer."

"I see two problems."

"Which are?"

"One, magic is still illegal."

"Yeah well that's going to have to change obviously."

"And two, I'm not a sorcerer. I'm a warlock."

"Oh yes, the all-powerful Emrys," Arthur said in a mocking tone as he hit Merlin round the back of the head.

"Hey, I can set a dragon on you you know."

Arthur just scoffed.

"Or those donkey ears really suited you."

"You wouldn't dare."

"Wouldn't I?"

"Magic's not yet legal."

"I think it's a bit late for that."

Arthur shook his head and stood up. He motioned for Merlin to follow him out of the cell, "Go and get Gaius, I expect you'll want to tell him first. The council meeting will be in the morning so make sure that no one sees you yet. And don't be late!"

Merlin ran off in the direction if the physician's chambers.


End file.
